When Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the state budget on April 7, it included funding vetoes for the university system, ferry service, Medicaid, school bond reimbursement and public radio.
But unlike last year, the governor did not veto funding for the Alaska State Council on the Arts. Essentially, at least for now, the arts council is back.
In this edition of Hometown Alaska, we’ll review how the July shutdown happened, how that action was reversed in August, and how the whole experience redirected the council’s work once it labored to re-open its doors.
But of course, there is one more wrinkle. Now, there is COVID-19.
Council leaders experience these recent crises as coming in waves. First came the November 2018 earthquake. Then came the 2019 fiscal shutdown. And just as the agency emerged from that, the global COVID-19 crisis arrived.
How are they helping artists and arts organizations now? What did they learn from past crises that informs their actions going forward? Where do they find resilience?
Please visit links below to refresh your memory of last summer’s budget news, as well as the scope of the arts council’s mission. As always, questions and comments are welcome throughout the program. Join us!
HOST: Kathleen McCoy
GUESTS:
- Andrea Noble, executive director, Alaska State Council on the Arts
- Benjamin Brown, council chair since 2007, Alaska State Council on the Arts
LINKS:
- Mission statement, Alaska State Council on the Arts
- Facebook page, Alaska State Council on the Arts; find April 2020 newsletter here
- Website, Alaska State Council on the Arts
- Fact sheet on council’s role, alaska.gov website
- List of Council members
- Benjamin Brown, Council Chair, bio, National Assembly of State Arts Councils website
- Andrea Noble, Executive Director, feature story, Anchorage Daily News, 1.7.2017
- COVID-19 response, Alaska State Council on the Arts and Arts and Culture Foundation
- Creative Forces: an NEA Military Health Arts Network, NEA website
- Alaska Arts and Culture Foundation website
- Crowd gathers in Anchorage to mark closing of Alaska State Council on the Arts, Anchorage Daily News, July 17, 2019
- With Governor’s arts council veto, Alaska would become the only state without an arts agency, Anchorage Daily News July 3, 2019
- Alaska State Council on the Arts to close its doors, KTUU, July 15, 2019
PARTICIPATE:
- Call 550-8433 (Anchorage) or 1-888-353-5752 (statewide) during the live broadcast (2:00 – 3:00pm)
- Send e-mail to hometown@alaskapublic.org before, during or after the live broadcast (e-mails may be read on air)
- Post your comment or question below (comments may be read on air
- LIVE: Monday, April 13, 2020 at 2:00 p.m
- RE-AIR: Monday, April 13, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
